D&D 5E A Guardian Angel... Good or Bad Idea?

[INTIMIDAT3R]

I DM'ed my first game 2 weeks ago after a 32 year hiatus(yep, I went on a road trip).

We were all just learning, relearning rules, and having fun with it.

Since it was our first game in over a generation, I kept an ace up my sleeve in case the party got into trouble. I didn't want anyone dying on their first adventure.

The character I kept in reserve, I'll keep his name and identity to myself for now, but he's human. He's 6'8", muscular build, brown neatly trimmed shoulder length hair, goatee, and blue eyes.

Just hint about him, he's been cursed by the gods with eternal life and he doesn't talk because of the guilt and shame he feels.

Anyway, he's pretty much the silent guardian angel of this particular town and countryside.

He wandered into the town one night 2 years ago seeking shelter from a storm.

No one knows who he is or where he came from. The town's folk call him Big John. They think he's a gentle giant, not too smart, but a loveable guy with sad eyes and who disappears into the forest and mountains from time to time.

However, the local barkeep thinks there's more to Big John than meets the eye and what the locals think.

Anyway...

The group was inside an orc's hideout doing well, I might add. I was a little disappointed, because I wanted to introduce Big John as an anonymous guardian angel that they never got a glimpse of.

It wasn't meant to be. They cleaned out the hideout and managed to get a few scars in the process.

Then I got an idea...

There had been 4 orcs that had run out of the hideout, trying to get away.

I thought, "Why not?" The orcs met Big John and their fate.

When the party exited the hideout, they found only the 4 dead orcs, impaled upon glowing white pikes 10 feet in the air and no one else.

The party was just freaked out, excited, and asking questions. The reaction I was looking for.

What was going to be a short term deal with Big John to rescue the party if they got into trouble until they got higher in level, has pleasantly turned into something else and the party is determined to find out who or what dealt with the orcs.

I realize I'm the DM and it's my world, but what do y'all think about this guardian angel idea?

Sorry this kind of rambled on, but I'm kind excited to see where this story goes because I'm not so sure yet.

 

[payn]

Welcome back. I'd use Big John very sparingly. Players hate being rescued by a high level NPC. As part of your prep Id scour some modules and get advice on challenges so you can get a feel of the wheelhouse. Hopefully the players can feel good about their choices and chances during encounters.

Depending on the group taste you can always toss on this...

 

[INTIMIDAT3R]

Welcome back. I'd use Big John very sparingly. Players hate being rescued by a high level NPC. As part of your prep Id scour some modules and get advice on challenges so you can get a feel of the wheelhouse. Hopefully the players can feel good about their choices and chances during encounters.

Depending on the group taste you can always toss on this...

One of favorite songs and I was singing it as a created him.

He's going to stay in the shadows until they get up there equal go him.

I'm basically going to drive them nuts trying to figure who or what is doing things in their adventures.

He'll never fight their battles for them. However, if they happen upon a high level monster they have no chance against, Big John will scare the monster off from a distance. Remaining unseen.

 

[Mort]

IMO, one reason the first interaction (of sorts) with Big John worked so well is because it wasn't a rescue, it was a mystery/plot hook. Most groups LOVE plot hooks. And at the same time most groups HATE DM PCs - especially ones who they see as stealing their thunder.

So the trick, as mentioned above, is to be VERY spare in the use of Big John - best if he's not seen as some kind of DM PC but as enigmatic presence that may or may not be an actual ally to the group. And when/if he actually becomes a recognized ally he shouldn't be some completely unattainable near demigod.

To that end, I wouldn't make him some 20th level (basically demigod) superhero. He can be a mid level retired adventurer (so well above the PCs current status) and still easily be the town "guardian angel."

But as a mid level guy, after a few adventures, for example, you can even have the PCs be in a position where the plot hook is saving Big John because he got in over his head and now needs help.

Just some thoughts.

 

[LordEntrails]

Guardian Angle = Bad Idea
Mysterious Actor with Unknown Motives = Good Idea

Give John his own motivations and plans, that justs happen to cross the party's on occasion. Sometimes ally, sometimes not. Mystery and tension is good

 

[Unwise]

Insane angels are a staple of my settings. If an angel is separated from their patron, they lack true free will or ambition. They start going mad if they cannot perform their primary functions. They are also naïve and single minded.

Examples of how this can be problematic that I have used:

• An angel protects the temple and its clerics. The high cleric is corrupted and the bad guy of the adventure. The angel will just do what he is told to do.
• An angel of vengeance will meet out brutal punishment (normally death) upon anybody it is told is bad. The villagers go to it and tell them that farmer joe stole their pig, it kills the farmer. That dead farmer's wife tells it that the other people lied to it to make it kill an innocents man, it kills those people too, etc etc on and on. Every town feud becomes a massacre.

So having John start off as a real blessing is great, but I would start hinting that he really needs to get home, for his own good and everybody elses.

 

[Yora]

Having a Deus Ex Machina save the PCs when things go bad for them is a can of worms that's really hard to close again. When the players realize they never were in actual danger, and probably never will be it drains most tension from the game.
The current situation does not sound bad at all. There's something interesting happening that makes sense. But the potential to lose is a big element in every fight, and removing that aspect by letting players know they will be saved if they make mistakes permanently damages the campaign.

 

[Immoralkickass]

Don't be surprised if your players aren't impressed. Most players don't like the idea of a super powerful NPC babysitting them, its one of the red flags for terrible DMing. They might even ask if Big John was one of the PCs you played before. Not saying you are like this, but most DMs who do this just want to scream "LOOK AT MY SUPER AWESOME (EX)PC! I BUILT HIM! HE'S SO BADASS AND STUFF."

I'd feel really cheated if the enemies get scared off by Big John. Its lame, don't do it. Players don't want to be a spectator to your powerful NPCs.

 

[aco175]

A cool twist may be that they meet him and later on he starts loosing his power. Maybe captured by the BBEG and his power is being taken for powering the McGruffin device to take over the world. Now instead of the all powerful NPC that comes to save the party, he needs saving and the PCs are the ones to do it.

For 1st and 2nd level I like to give out an aid scroll to let the PCs gain +5 hp for 8 hours. They can save it, but they should learn to use them.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I have had some good luck with a similar character, Tenryu Shen, a gold dragon masquerading as a mere dragonborn priest. The best advice I can provide on this front is:

1. If possible, try to let Big John meet the party in a way that doesn't immediately reveal to them that he is a guardian angel. Perhaps he's an NPC in a location they're likely to frequent, or can act as a contact for the party to call on when they need information. IOW, make him someone useful to the party without making him someone doing their work for them or impressing them with how badass he is.
2. Keep his active involvement more or less as you have done here: soft-touch, around the edges, merely nudging events in desirable directions. More or less, you don't want the party to feel like he is "responsible" for their success, but rather that he has given them a helping hand now and then.
3. Decide on some limits--whether external or self-enforced--that would prevent him from being at their beck and call. In my case, Shen is in town on his own mission, which occupies most of his time (when he isn't assisting with other priestly duties or spending time with his fiancee, that is.) Having limits on what Big John can do, so that again he is a helper and a benefit but not a "we win" button nor a glory hog, is very useful.
4. Either give Big John a distinct personality and desires, ones that can ground him and give him likable texture and make him a friend, OR make him have no real personality of his own at all....but have one develop as a result of his interactions with the players. The former is what I did, the latter might make more sense for you, and will give the players some sense of "ownership" that can mitigate other problems.
5. If possible, present situations where Big John has to turn to the PCs for help. This, again, mitigates potential issues, while at the same time emphasizing that the PCs matter. You'll probably want to hold this kind of thing off until later on, perhaps even after the party knows Big John's true identity, but "please help me solve a problem I can't solve on my own" is a great way to tone down potential "DMPC" fears.

Keep in mind that there is no magic bullet on this stuff. The powerful guardian angel character is a risky play, but I have personal experience playing one and having it turn out well. As others have said, you made a good opening move by presenting it as a mystery rather than as the players getting saved. If you can build toward a situation where the players "already" like Big John without knowing it, then you can have a cool or heartwarming revelation later on. Best of luck to you, this sounds like it could be a really fun campaign element if you can pull it off.